Ancrene Wisse and the hope of glory

Abstract:

This thesis investigates the way in which Christopher Hope, Ivan Vladislavic and Andre Brink make use of the fantastic to respond to and explore historical and contemporary South African realities. In the Introduction, the imaginatively and aesthetically restricted nature of much English-language South African fiction during the apartheid era is examined. Many South African writers in English still seem unable to transcend these limitations. There is therefore a need for freer, more imaginatively charged literary approaches, such as the fantastic. In the first chapter, reasons for many South African writers' and critics' antipathy to this mode are touched upon. Various definitions of the fantastic are discussed and the role that this mode, particularly in its carnivalesque aspects, can play in South African literature is considered. In the second chapter, we see how, through his use of satire and black comedy, Christopher Hope emphasises the warped absurdities of life under apartheid. Authority is subverted and controls are eluded, as Hope suggests the possibility of creative, liberated ways of apprehending reality through his use of the carnivalesque. The playful nature of Ivan Vladislavic's fantastical engagement with 1980s and 1990s South Africa is manifested in the sense of Barthian jouissance his fiction evokes, his Nonsense elements and his teasing postmodern games with potential meanings. Sometimes his work suffers when intellectual concerns take precedence over their fictional realisation. More significantly, however, Vladislavic's fiction depicts carnivalesque freedoms that take place in spite of the various factors that appear to work against them. Through fantastical re-imaginings of South Africa's past, Andre Brink seeks to reclaim the latter, offering visions of healing and reconciliation. But Brink is too self-consciously programmatic in his approach, and he is unable to bring his fantastic elements to life. In conclusion, there are undoubtedly various difficulties associated with the fantastic and certain social, cultural and material factors presenting obstacles to the development of this mode in South African literature. Nonetheless, there is an ongoing need for the fantastic, with its special ability to investigate and illuminate aspects of this country's reality and to expand South Africans' still circumscribed imaginative horizons.